“Focus on 2027”: Joao Fonseca ends his season and will not defend his Basel title

Joao Fonseca will not play again in 2026. On Saturday, the Brazilian posted a video on his Instagram account saying he was ending his season and turning his attention to next year.

“Hey everyone, just here with an update,” Fonseca said, in Portuguese. “As you’ve seen, I stayed out of the Asian swing to focus on my recovery. My plan was to come back in Europe, but after talking with my team, I don’t feel 100% ready to compete at the level I was at, and I don’t want to rush things.

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“So I decided to prioritize my health and focus on 2027. Thank you so much for your support and your affection, as always. See you on the courts soon.”

This means Fonseca will not be in Basel to defend the Swiss Indoors title he won last October. He beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in that final, and the ATP 500 trophy is still the biggest of his career.

His summer was a series of withdrawals. He pulled out of Cincinnati before his third-round match, then missed the US Open with an abdominal injury. In September he announced he would skip the Asian swing, including the ATP 500 in Tokyo and the Masters 1000 in Shanghai. “2026 has been a very challenging year for me,” he wrote at the time, explaining that he had chosen to “listen to my body.”

The season still had its milestones. Fonseca reached his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal in Monte-Carlo, then his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland Garros. He held a 20-13 record when he announced he would miss Asia. His career-high ranking is No. 24, reached last season.